Day 29

Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Point Church Podcast. We're here on day twenty nine. As we're walking through the book of Matthew, verse by verse, and we're here with Pastor Sam as we go through this, and we are glad you're here today. ⁓ we're picking up in chapter fifteen, verse one. It reads, Then Jesus was approached by the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem, who asked, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they don't wash their hands when they eat. Yeah, first that's a very good observation on behalf of the ⁓ the Pharisees and the scribes to say Germs. Yeah, exactly. Germs. Your disciples are being gross. That's not what they're concerned about. What they're talking about is a tradition that started during the Babylonian exile. So the Babylonian exile, ⁓ if you're new to scripture, was a time when Israel, the nation, had rebelled against God for so long that they were handed over to their enemies. The temple is destroyed, the city of Jerusalem is destroyed, all because they rebelled against God. So they're living in another land, basically back in slavery, like Egypt. Then they're released, and then everyone becomes a religious zealot. 'Cause they're like, If our sins are what got us in trouble with God, we need to listen to God. Good. Yes, for sure. But then they said, But let's never even get close to sin. So let's add rules. That's when you hear Jesus railing against is you added more than what God wanted. Like you can't even do this because if you do that, it could lead to this. That could eventually lead to sin. So that's what they're more concerned about is not that they broke the law of God, but like, hey, we set up this system of cleanliness and righteousness. That's what they're talking about, is the religious side that they added their system. Exactly. Their system, not God's system. Yeah. He answered them, Why do you break God's commandment because of your tradition? For God said, Honor your father and your and your mother and whenever he whenever whoever speaks evil of father and mother must be put to death. Right there he's Right. So Jesus is saying like you've actually s in your religious zeal swapped out God's law for tradition. Yeah. Like you're trying to create a new system that is not one from God. And in doing so, you're breaking these commands. And and and that's a whole that's a whole nother sermon we could get into that he uses that example. What he's trying to say is like you're trying to replace God's law with your interpretation of it. Yeah. So don't worry about tradition. Worry about what we told you to do. Yeah. Continuing on to verse five. But you say whoever tells his father or mother Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift committed to the temple. He does not have to honor his father, and this way you have multi mollified the word of God because of your tradition. Hypocrites. Isaiah prophesies correctly about you when he said The people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands. Yep. So he's bringing Isaiah again then. Yeah, referring to Isaiah again who again on first reading Imabic, I don't know Isaiah, I don't know that he's talking about all these commands. Well, Jesus is saying is the same problem that we deal with today. People who act religious, people who act like they're holier than thou, people who act like they know better. Mm-hmm. Jesus is not a fan of them either. He's not a fan of that heart set. So if you've ever felt like convicted, judged Or unfairly treated by someone who says they're religious or says they're a good churchgoer. And you're like, But something feels off. Jesus is like, You are right. There is something off. They're being religious. They're not living into the relationship that I've you know died to give them in the I'm gonna go heart. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Continuing on in verse 10, it says, Summoning the crowd, he told them, listen and understand. It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles a person. Then the disciples came up and told him, Do you know what the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said? He replied, Every plant that my heavenly Father didn't plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone. They are blind guides, and if the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit. Yeah. Again, same thing. Jesus has come to say up to this point, things have not been going well your spiritual journey, and the people who are supposed to be helping you are hurting you. Yeah. They've been the house. Right. And he's like, they don't have a right understanding. They don't have a right interpretation and they definitely don't have the right lifestyle. They're living as hypocrites. Leave them alone. Yeah. I'll deal with them. I'm trying to straighten them out too. I'm still trying to save them. There's grace for them, but it's a different approach. Yeah. So that's yeah, blind guides. By the guidance. This in verse fifteen it reads, Then Peter said, Explain this parable to us. Do you still lack an understanding? He asked, and this is Jesus talking. Mm-hmm. Don't you realize that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is eliminated? But what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a person. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adultery, sexual immoralities, thefts. False testimonies, slander. These are the things that defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile a person. So these falling all the way back to the unwashed hands. So there is a line from the book of James. One of actually the few times where the word hell gets used. The hell the word hell doesn't get used as much as people think. No. In the Bible, but it's it's there. So I'm not saying ignore it, but it's on every other page. But a very key one that James talks about is in James chapter three, where he says the power of the tongue has the power of hell, that hell can be released from the power of the tongue. And that's what James is saying is the same thing that he's echoing Jesus' message. It's not that, you know, you you might see something, you might experience something, you took something into your life. That's not your fault. Maybe you were a victim of a situation or something just happened to you. But it's when you let out words of hatred that become murder, Sermon on the Mount, words of lust that becomes like adultery. It's what comes out of your mouth reveals your heart. And if you have the power of hell in your tongue, well, where's the source? It's coming from your heart. So again, that's what Jesus is trying to get at. You need a new heart. You need to watch what's coming out because it's evidence. There's something wrong in your heart. So again, that's what he's trying to say is these Pharisees, don't be deceived. Yeah. Don't be deceived. Their hearts are far from me. They do not have the renewed heart. Yeah. Yeah. So good. And verse 21 it says, When Jesus left there, he withdrew to the area of of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came and kept crying out, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is severely tormented by a demon. Jesus did not say a word to her. His disciples approached him and urged him, send her away because she's crying after us. He replied I was I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she kept came, knelt before him, and said, Lord, help me. He answered, It isn't right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Yes, Lord, she said. Yet even the dolls eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table. Then Jesus replied to her, Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you want. And from that moment her daughter was healed. So there's a lot to unpack. A lot to unpack. So we'll let you unpack it. Yep. Don't know if we've hit this point enough, so I'll say in very clearly the authors of the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are geniuses. Nothing was put by accident. Nothing was ⁓ I'll just randomly put that there. They're the way they layer the story is very intentional, and you have to pay attention to pick up what they're saying. Yeah. Notice that Jesus at first Seems very harsh with this woman, like almost ignoring her. Yet he's in her region. First observation. He's in her region. Yeah. She's not in his. He went to her spa. Okay. But he seems to be almost ignoring her. Then she's crying out, crying out, and he says, I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Well, what are you doing? In Gentile land. Yeah. You know, there's something interesting happening here. It's like, okay, that's a strange comment. And then he says it's not right to take the children's bread and throat to the dogs. And you're like, what? Like Jesus, what are you why you calling her a dog? Yeah. It has been speculated, and I it it makes a lot of sense to me that in those days Gentiles were referred to as dogs. Mm-hmm. ⁓ that there was actually a blessing. ⁓ I might have mentioned the podcast earlier, but I'm definitely, you know, mentioned at a church that there was a of prayer that specifically men would pray of that century. It's definitely not in the Bible, but would say, God, thank you for not making me like a Gentile, a woman, or a dog. Equating the three. So this woman is the lowest of the low. And they're and Jesus saying it out loud with the men of his disciples behind him. And you can almost hear him breaking through, using the language they probably used. Yeah. The harshness of their words. And they're like, You know what I mean? Like in even again, this is written to a Jewish audience. Yeah. So they would have been like, ⁓ wow, that's very painful to hear us quoted back by the Lord. And then he calls her woman. Mm-hmm. Just another observation. He like elevates her. Yes. But the main takeaway, and this could be a whole sermon, so I ha I have to be careful. Main takeaway is notice the religious leaders. Mm-hmm. Who should be the cleanest, the most righteous on the outside, or the dirtiest on the inside. The woman, the Gentile, who is the dirtiest on the outside in their metric system, is the cleanest on the inside. Right. So that's what Matthew's trying to get us to understand. It's compare and contrast. The people who should have gotten it don't get it. And the people who shouldn't have gotten it get it. Again, it's all upside down and it's all about fate. It's not about nationality. It's not about birthright. It's about your pursuit. It's that line again of the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Those who want it get it. And that's what she's demonstrating. So he's in Gentile country and that's where the next miracles happen. Yep. Picking up Verse twenty nine. Moving on from there, Jesus passed along the sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat there, and large crowds came to him, including the lame, the blind, the crippled, those unable to speak, and many others. They put them at his feet, and he healed them. So the crowd was amazed, and when they saw those unable to speak talking, the crippled were stored, the lame walking, the blind seeing, and they gave glory to God of Israel. Notice the transition. Yep. Gentile country, which means non Jewish, not followers of Yahweh. Yep. And who are they thanking because Jesus is there? The God of Israel. How different it is than the people in his own hometown who should have been the first in line to receive him, the na like those in Nazareth. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. And ⁓ They're like, Isn't this the preacher's kid? Like who who's or this is the carpenter's son? Who's this? Like, get him out of here. But those who should have been the furthest off are the ones who are praising God and being like, You gotta meet this guy, you gotta like they're the quickest to receive it. Again, same thing. The those who seem dirty by the world standard have the cleanest heart because they see Jesus and they recognize their need for him, and those who are cleanest in the world's eyes don't recognize their need for Jesus, so their hearts are dirty. So again, Jesus is demonstrating And that's why Matthew layers it the way that he does. Yeah. And again, it even shows in that that they brought those people to they already believed and they were like, Yeah, we're going. Like word spread fast about Jesus in their land. There was no persecution, no attempt to stone him. Yeah. Yes. They just received him because we need this. Yeah. Mm-hmm. In verse thirty two, Jesus called his disciples and said, I have compassion on the crowd, because they already stayed with me three days and have nothing to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry, otherwise they might collapse on the wedding. The disciples said to him, Where could we get enough bread and this desolate place to feed such a crowd? How many loaves do you have? Jesus asked him. Seven, they said, and a few small fish. Aff after commanding the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples, and his disciples gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied, they collected the leftover pieces, seven large baskets full. Now there were four thousand men who had eaten beside women and children. After the miss dismissing the crowd he got into the boat and went into the region of Amad. Magdala. Yep. So this is like the overlooked miracle somehow. Like other miracles get like the, you know, big like Feed Five Thousand Walking On the Water of the Lapter get a lot of the, you know, esteem and the fame. But this one gets overlooked like ⁓ only four thousand. It it's communicating something similar to the five thousand, but it's unique. Yeah. So again, feeding of the five thousand was for the Jewish people. In Israel. Yeah. This is in the Gentile land, would you just say outside of Israel? And the number seven is very critical. Just as 12 basketfuls represents the 12 tribes of Israel that Jesus has come to provide for the 12 tribes of Israel, seven basketfuls shows the number of seven is the number complete or universal. Yeah. ⁓ wholeness. Mm-hmm. Jesus is providing. The spiritual food, the satisfaction, the needs of everybody in the world. That he's feeding first Israel, now the Gentiles, and there's seven left over. That means like his work is going to be for the whole world. So this is an astounding miracle that it's not just for Israel, but he's now fed four thousand people and it's gonna continue. Now, so when you go back to that woman who is like the Canaanite woman, you're like, ⁓ wait, Jesus wasn't being Harsh with her, or else he wouldn't have stayed for three days teaching them. Again, he's trying to juxtapose it to the religious leaders. He's trying to compare it. But then feeding of the 4,000 with seven left over is like, I am so good. I'm so all satisfying on everything you need. And it's not just for the people born into the Jewish faith, it's for anyone who has come to seek me as Savior and Lord, who has come for me to put them back together. Amen. Amen. And with that. We're gonna be closing out today and we'll be back tomorrow for day thirty, the home stretch. That's right. Yeah. So thank you for tuning in and we'll see you tomorrow.